Ron Paul Activism Wall of Shame

UPDATE: The man in the video has now apologized for the over-the-top behavior. Don’t send him any more hate mail! Everyone can learn from mistakes, even me.

While I try to take a positive approach when writing about activism, sometimes the best lessons come from watching someone fail. In this video, two Ron Paul supporters disrupt a Democrat rally outside of the capital building in Austin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bSotZ5OYr8

I wonder how many votes they gained for Ron Paul by doing this?
Submit your ideas for next week’s Activism Wall of Shame here: irootsorg@gmail.com

Rather than losing votes from Democrats, think of how many votes they could have gained during this time by talking to likely Republican voters in Austin! But then again, we wouldn’t have such a great bad example to share!

I would like to apologize for the behavior of the people who disrupted this rally. I am an organizer of the Austin Ron Paul group, and this is not the type of activism that we support or allow to go on. We have made steps to avoid this type of behavior at future events.

I hope the rally was not disrupted to bad because of the poor actions of a few. Ron Paul supporters are in general nice and respectful people. So please don’t get the image that all, or even most, Ron Paul supporters condone this type of behavior. In fact, we probably share a lot of the opinions of the anti-war branch of the Democratic Party.

So again, apologies go out the the Democratic group that put this event on, and hopefully there won’t be too many hard feelings. We’re all trying to save this country together.

Matt, This is Aaron the founder of the site. I’d like to make it up to you for posting something on the negative side about Austin. Would you be willing to guest post something for us about challenges and successes you’ve had in Austin?
Email me at irootsorg@gmail.com if so.

I hope you don’t mind us posting this–it’s good sometimes to watch our mistakes and learn together–and I don’t mean you. I’ve done things in the past that turned out terribly. We all learn together.

What are you guys talking about?! A peaceful Ron Paul supporter quietly holds a very normal looking sign supporting his candidate at a public, political event outdoors at the state capitol. That is 100% appropriate behavior. Then a Democrat sneaks up from behind and violently steals his personal property! Then a cop forces the victim to leave?!

If you didn’t have an endorsement from Tom Woods, I’d say this website is shameful. The Ron Paul supporter should be given an award for not swearing or resisting after being subjected to theft and violence.